On the precipice of her sixteenth birthday, the last thing lone wolf Cat Crawford wants is an extravagant gala thrown by her bubbly stepmother and well-meaning father. So even though Cat knows the family’s trip to Florence, Italy, is a peace offering, she embraces the magical city and all it offers. But when her curiosity leads her to an unusual gypsy tent, she exits . . . right into Renaissance Firenze.

Thrust into the sixteenth century armed with only a backpack full of contraband future items, Cat joins up with her ancestors, the sweet Alessandra and protective Cipriano, and soon falls for the gorgeous aspiring artist Lorenzo. But when the much-older Niccolo starts sniffing around, Cat realizes that an unwanted birthday party is nothing compared to an unwanted suitor full of creeptastic amore.

Can she find her way back to modern times before her Italian adventure turns into an Italian forever?

Reyna ignores my gasps for air and nails me with an eerie stare. “Caterina, a great adventure is in store for you. Be sure to keep your mind open to the lessons ahead.”

First I have a weeklong exams ahead of me. I even notified my fellow Book Whales that I would be delayed with some of my reviews. But as I might say, I caught the procrastination bug or rather the bug of I-don’t-want-to-start-studying-yet. I was actually very intrigued with this story before and asked TheUnseelieNerd to get it for me if she can and today she actually did. It’s my perfect distraction from starting my painfully long review and I never noticed that I already finished the novel and am now writing my review for all of you. So here it goes…

I have to put out that I really adore this novel. It has that simplicity in it yet intriguing at the same time. It presented several scenarios that just made me feel all giddy and snickering. Also, the way the author painted the beauty of Italy is simply breathtaking. Personally, I’ve never been to that place but she made me want to actually pack my bags and go there (which I really hope someday I can do). The arts, the people, the infrastructure that was written just kept on jumping in my imagination and you can almost feel the Italian spirit in it.

Character wise, I love every person that Ms. Rachel Harris wrote in the novel from the people of the sixteenth century to those in the future and even the gypsy. Each and every character is unique and you can’t get enough of them. But I’m only going to point out two of the main characters I love.

Cat, for me, is your typical 21st teenager, sans the parents being major big shots in the Hollywood community. Being rich and in the limelight you expect her to do something wrong. Like a blunder or something that would show that she’s the wild child of the celebrity family and post it all over the tabloids and that’s exactly her dilemma in the novel. Cat despite her spunky attitude tries to be the perfect nice child resulting for her being the loner that she is. Entering back to the sixteenth century made her discover more about herself that she would ever know. She learned how to open her heart and slowly made people enter it one by one. For some reason, I really love her. And I especially like how she sometimes blurts out her modern American linggos such as “easy breasy” and more that made her ancestors kind of say those words too (which I find super funny).

And Lorenzo, Cat’s love interest or should I say every girl’s dream boy. When I’m reading Lorenzo I can’t help but swoon at him. He’s like the perfect guy. He paints, handsome and devilishly charming. I find it really nice how Cat tries her best at first not to fall for him because of his looks. It is really fun to read how she sometimes talk to herself that she won’t be like any other girl that falls in love with the charming Lorenzo. But as you know, in the end love conquers all or maybe I might say that tension can’t really be ignored. Reading about their interaction made me all giddy in the whole story and I kind of wonder what will happen when she returns back to her time line.

The only problem for me (if this is even considered a problem) is what happened after she returned back to her timeline. I feel like after she returned the past was explained so little. Like if (this would be a spoiler) her counterpart and Lorenzo became a couple or he remained single loving the future Cat. (I’m hoping they are together but that would kind of ruin the ancestor kind of thing and confused us but oh well). Well, at the end Cat reluctance to actually search something’s about Lorenzo kind of made me a little disappointed.

On the other hand, I still like the way the author end the story where there is a window of you creating your own ending. Except of course if she’s thinking of creating another one, which I think might happen with the way it ended. Anyways, I can’t wait to read the next book, if there is one, and I must say I enjoyed reading this.

Overall, I recommend this book for teens that loves to read a good light romance story as well as those people who enjoy reading a time travel book. I can also see people who appreciates the beauty of a place would adore this and those who wants to discover oneself.

Just read the Temple Wars Novel on Ganesha! The story is well told through a parallel protagonist Tarun who helps Ganesha retrieve his objects from the spirit world. It's a page-turner that will have you wanting more. You guys should check it out! Temple Wars